The present invention relates to a fuel supply module including a sub tank inside a main tank to supply a fuel from the sub tank to an engine, and a fuel supply apparatus including the fuel supply module.
Conventionally, as a fuel supply module applied to a vehicle, such as an automobile, there is a fuel supply module in which a sub tank is disposed inside a main tank that stores a fuel for the automobile. The sub tank is a fuel storing container which has a lateral cross section sufficiently smaller than that of the main tank. The sub tank includes a fuel supply pump therein, and also includes a jet pump at a position where an inside of the sub tank communicates with an outside thereof. The fuel supply pump is provided for sucking the fuel stored in the sub tank and supplying it into the engine. The jet pump is provided for injecting a part of the fuel, which is supplied to the engine, from a jet pump nozzle to suck the fuel stored inside the main tank into the sub tank by utilizing a negative pressure generated by the jet pump at the time of injecting the fuel.
According to the fuel supply module described above, when the fuel supply pump is driven, the fuel inside the main tank is sucked into the sub tank by the operation of the jet pump, so that the fuel is always stored in the sub tank. Therefore, even if the vehicle is tilted, or even if a level of the fuel stored in the main tank is temporarily lowered due to a centrifugal force applied to the vehicle, the fuel stored in the sub tank can be securely supplied to the engine.
The jet pump described above is generally disposed at a bottom portion of the sub tank to securely suck the fuel into the sub tank even if the fuel inside the main tank is running short. Therefore, when the fuel supply module is assembled, a passage for supplying a part of the fuel, which is discharged from the fuel supply pump, is required to be connected to the jet pump nozzle disposed at the bottom portion of the sub tank before the fuel supply pump is supported at the inside of the sub tank. This operation has to be carried out deep inside of the sub tank, and causes the assembling operation to be extremely cumbersome.
The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing, and an object of the invention is to provide a fuel supply apparatus and a fuel supply module that can facilitate the assembling operation thereof.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a fuel supply module, which comprises a main tank for storing a fuel therein; a sub tank disposed inside the main tank; a fuel supply pump adapted to be driven to supply the fuel inside the sub tank to the engine; a jet pump for sucking the fuel inside the main tank into the sub tank from a bottom of the main tank by utilizing a generated negative pressure; and a supporting bracket attached to an inside of the sub tank so as to support the fuel supply pump at the inside of the sub tank. The fuel in the sub tank is supplied to the engine by driving the fuel supply pump, and a part of the fuel is supplied to the jet pump to generate the negative pressure. The supporting bracket is provided with a jet pump supply passage, which is connected to the jet pump when the supporting bracket is attached to the sub tank, and the jet pump supply passage supplies a part of the fuel discharged from the fuel supply pump to the jet pump.
In case the fuel supply module is provided with pressure regulating means, which relieves some of the fuel discharged from the fuel supply pump to regulate the fuel at a predetermined pressure and supplies the relieved fuel to the jet pump, it is preferable that a holding section for holding the pressure regulating means is disposed in the supporting bracket. Also, positioning means for regulating positions of the sub tank and the supporting bracket may be preferably disposed between the sub tank and the supporting bracket. Further, it is preferable that the jet pump is provided with a sealing member for sealing a space between the jet pump and the jet pump supply passage. In the jet pump supply passage, a second jet pump may be provided.